The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1945 1/2 ton rewire (just bragging)

I bought a 1945 Chevy 1/2 ton a few weeks ago and have fallen in love with it. But, there were a few things bothering me. One was the way the ammeter never read into the "Charging" side. The needle just hung straight down, not really discharging, just laying there (lazy SOB). I checked the battery occasionally and it seemed to be holding right at 6.23 volts. However, that all changed when I got caught at the local restaurant after dark. Lights on, discharging badly. I did not tell the wife and kids that I was afraid we wouldn't make it home, and luckily we did.

Today I went out and decided to have a look at the charging system. Nothing seemed to be wrong except every wire in the harness was showing bare copper. I started taping and realized I could not buy enough tape to patch the mess (not to mention all the butt splices and other forms of nastiness). So on a whim, I started rewiring the truck. Every wire came out and new wires went in. I bought wiring loom, several colors of wire, and ring connectors from the hardware shop and went to work. Heater, dash lights, dimmer, tailights, everything got the treatment (wire sized to match the old). When I finished (four or five hours later) I hooked the battery back up and fired it up. To my complete surprise and joy, the system started charging like nobody's business!

I had no idea my lights would burn so brightly and the heater would blow at full blast. Now I know that I have taken away from the originality of the truck, but I wieghed that against a reliable electrical system and it was no contest. The job looks neat and clean.. and works (did I mention that already?).

Well, my wife does not really appreciate this sort of victory, so I figured I would share it with all of you. I am so inspired I will start conquering the next little thing that keeps me tossing at night....(is she timed correctly?)

Hal

Congratulations on your good work. Now you know where every wire goes and that knowledge will come in handy someday.

Good job on your wiring. The old truck probably never had it so good.

Good job, Hal. But if you are really concerned about originality you could rewire it with a cloth insulated wire harness. If you're like me, that's one piece of originality to do without.

Thanks Truckernix and Joy for the encouragement.

FredT- I know that I could have went back with cloth, but three things made me decide not to.

First is the cost of the harness. Man, those things are high dollar. Who would of ever thought you could purchase such an inferior system for so much more....(OK, I guess there are people saying that about old vehicles in general, so I know the answer to that one)

Second, I felt that the pvc covered wire would last forever. I really love the way the old cloth looks (in fact, my old '47 Harley has been rewired with new cloth covered wire), but as can be seen on the old bike, after a couple years it starts breaking down again.

Third, I have a hardware store, literally, in my back yard. They sell darn near as much stuff as the local automotive shop. Since the whole job was a spur of the moment affair, I walked over and bought the supplies. I am glad I did it that way instead of a harness, because it gave me a chance to go over the wires one by one. I was an electrician for many years. The work is as pretty as any control panel I ever wired.

BTW- I got my owners and Shop manuals in the mail ealier this week. I have now done a valve adjustment, flushed the cooling system, and changed all the fluids (rear end included). Four late nights in the shop, but the old pickup is in pretty good shape now.

Sounds like you are going in a good way with your truck.Any pics yet?

Mechainiac- After our email discussion, I set up a location and posted the picture.

It went much quicker than I expected. Here is the address:

http://home.neb.rr.com/roseberry/

Hal

Cool
Great job and quick too

Oh man, what a pretty bik....truck....I can't decide.....Hal, they both look great, man. Really pretty iron you got there. Take a shot of the wiring for us, will ya? I'll bet everybody would like to see what you did.

Paul,

Thanks. The bike was (is) my dad's. I am the gaurdian and caretaker for it. It is really fun to ride and draws almost as much attention as the old truck. The truck, however, is obviously old and the bike is not so obvious to the untrained eye (cool thing about Harleys- they have kept their styling all these years)

I will try to get some photos under the hood to show the wiring job. It will give away the truck's big secrets, though. You will see the paint is not orginal, nor the factory color. It is a little like looking at the roots of a blond's hair.....in some cases.

Sweet truck!

Nice bike too.............they look good together.

Definately not "obscure junk"..

Ok, I added pictures of the re-wire job to the link I gave earlier in the thread. It loads a little slower, but not bad.

Hal

gmc248- Thanks. The title is meant to say "If you stumbled in here, you are probably going to be confused about what it means".

It is a little like taking photographs of things that mean something to you and hanging them on a cork board at City Hall. Your friends may understand the reasons, but most people passing by could not care less. The "Obscure Junk" thing is more about the quality of the site than its contents.

Hal

Nice wiring job..............looks like you were dodging rain drops when you did this?

Hal, that's just the kind of web site that I like...........cuts right to the chase, no fancy javascript or pop-ups.

Yes, I have dial-up service..... :rolleyes:

Hal, is that a GMC engine in your truck?

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gmc248, good to see you back

Thanks Luke

Hmmmmm, the engine is suspiciously reddish-orange and it does have the 7/8" belt so common to Jimmy's.................but the carb is facing the wrong way and the exhaust only has a two-bolt flange................mine has three. Unless only larger trucks got the three bolt flange? My intake has a GMC emblem cast-in right behind the horn mount (which is visible in Hal's pics).................

Hal, can you give us a better pic of the engine?
maybe with the top of the valve rocker cover and the passenger side of the engine?

Huh?...., I have no idea. I assumed it was a 216 Chevy, but I have never really checked, because I did not expect it to be anything else. I do not know if it makes a difference, but I put a new valve cover gasket on it, and the 216 gasket fit perfectly...

I will have to check into that. Now I am curious myself.

mechainiac- Yeah I will do that. It will be tommorrow before I can post it. I have to get cleaned up to go watch brave soles ride motorcycles up the side of a hill.

They called the hill climbs due to rain, so I came home and decided to post the engine photos.

I made a few changes to the linked site so that it will not be so slow (trying to be accomodate the dial up-ers). Now, it opens with an index and you can go to the specific thing you want to look at without loading all the pictures.

You will have to use the "Back" button in order to return to the menu. I am not real fancy with this (I started creating web pages yesterday, for Pete's sake). http://home.neb.rr.com/roseberry

I hope you guys can give me some insight to the engine ID.

Hal

Uh-Oh, your links are not working on your index page. You can't have spaces in the URL's (empty ones anyway), our browsers won't like it.

Hope to see your motor soon

As far as I can tel, you have a 216 of a 1952 vintage.If you can locate the casting number we can verify that for sure.
I was thinking that it might have been a GMC engine from the earlier pics which did not show very much other than the color and the straight drop of the center of the manifold.

Sorry about that. I tried it on my machine before I posted that it was changed and it worked.....

I took out the spaces.

Since this is becoming an engine thread, are we still OK discussing it here?

Hal

Must have fixed them before I got there as they worked fine for me
I think it is ok to continue just as long as we are not selling anything

mechainiac- So you think it is a '52? Is that still a babbit engine?

The only casting number I know of is the one I put on the site. If you can tell me where more would be, I will try to grab them.

Hal

Should be numbers cast into the side of the block either by the starter or by the fuel pump.These numbers will be a raised casting (part of the block)

The only numbers on the block are next to the starter. They are on a raised boss. The numbers are S-43862KAN. The dash looks like it was stamped with a side-ways I.

I posted a picture of the boss with the numbers on it on the above linked site (under engine photos). Please let me know if the link doesn't work. I tried it on my office computer and it loads fine.

Thanks,
Hal

Love those Art Deco trucks when they are red !

Hey , that Carter carb is leaking fuel all over , just like mine .

The # you have posted is the engine serial # . The casting # is forward of the fuel pump , below the GM cast on the block. Yep looks like a later 216.

Look where Dusty has mentioned.You should possibly find the numbers 3835849.
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Are the numbers you posted S-43862KAN? could the last letter POSSIBLY be an "M"

I did see the pic you posted but I could not read the last letter clearly :confused:
Look for that casting number by the fuel pump

Ok, I found the numbers in front and below the distributor. 3835497 and under that number in the same size font is 18.

As for the last letter in the serial number, I double checked it and it is an N.

Hal

3835497 works out to be either a 50 or 51 216

mechainiac- I was out looking on the web and found this site

http://www.classictruckshop.com/cast1.html

According to their chart, an engine with that casting number could be from 42-53....

Is there something else that makes you suspect it is newer than 45?

Hal

I've seen that site too Hal ,, but I've got 3 other sites that list your # as '50 - 51 pass & truck .

http://www.antiquechevytrucks.com/Content/Engine%20Information/engine_types_side.htm

That is where I have been looking.Now I am wondering who is more accurate? LOL

Also, check for date code to verify engine year. Casting #'s often cover several year models; passenger or truck.

Well, I guess it doesn't make any difference. I am just trying to figure out how original the old truck is. In some ways, it would be nice if it isn't original. I could make minor changes without feeling guilty (such as the wiring project I just completed).

Thanks for all the help and feed back. It has been enlightening.

Hal

Hal, no doubt the engine is a 216 made in 1952. If the serial number ends up being "KAM" its a truck engine. It wasn't uncommon to have a previous year's casting number on an early model year engine. The block was cast in 1951 and assembled in 1952 thus receiving this model year's serial number. The engine should have a big circled 51 embossed on the side of the block. My dad's 1949 216 is the original for the car and has a 1949 serial number and a big circled 48 embossed on the block.